Akane has transformed into someone Aqua didn’t think was replicable. Oshi No Ko Episode 8 sees Aqua deal with his feelings for Ai. Let’s see how it went!
Oshi No Ko Episode 8 Overview
Oshi No Ko, or My Star, is a drama and supernatural anime based on a manga written by Aka Akasaka, who also wrote Kaguya-sama Love Is War and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari. The anime adaptation is being directed by Daisuke Hiramaki, who has directed shows like Selection Project and Koisuru Asteroid in the past, alongside being a part of huge productions such as Bunny Girl Senpai and Naruto.
The series is being brought into the medium of anime by studio Doga Kobo, a relatively new studio which has been behind shows like Himotou Umaru-chan and Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie. This episode is also referred to as My Star Episode 8. Click here to read the review of the previous episode!
– My Star Episode 8 Review does not contain spoilers –
Oshi No Ko Episode 8 Review- First Time
So, it’s been a little longer than usual since we heard something new from the series. While the break was just an unfortunate reality of the current working conditions in most studios, we can take a positive out of it. The longer wait period built up anticipation after the previous episode ended as it did. Ai, who Aqua thought was extremely special and could not be replaced, could be replicated by Akane to such a degree that Aqua found himself flustered to be in her presence. Now, that might not be as big of a deal when viewed from this angle, but it was a groundbreaking discovery for Aqua, the main character in the show.
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Ai wasn’t as special as he thought her to be, and he knew very little about her despite being a fan once and being her son now. According to his own words in this episode, it was very difficult to reconcile with the fact that he didn’t know where the showtime Ai ended and where the real Ai began. It was basically the only direction this story could have gone towards after the Akane reveal, but it is a good one. I think we could have gotten some more juice out of Aqua’s perturbance, as the show didn’t explore it as much as one would expect.
This episode also featured the end of the Dating Show mini-arc that had taken centre stage in the past couple of episodes. For a show with a premise as engaging as this one, it felt like a weird tangent to go on. It is almost as if it was a side-quest that the main character had to do for reasons unclear to us so far. We should see the impact of Akane’s almost frightening knowledge of Ai and the deal Aqua had with the producer soon enough, but we have to go through the teen love plot point first.
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Somebody behind the scenes must love Kana a lot because the amount of fantastically animated frames she gets despite only ever being in very few scenes is astounding. Almost every episode features an Arima frame that you can literally frame inside your house if you’re not afraid of looking like a weirdo. Her relevance to the plot was given a little bit of a spotlight in this episode, as she and Aqua discussed what purpose she served in his life, which was decent.
I was a little underwhelmed by Oshi no Ko Episode 8, which was aided by a longer wait for this episode and this being an episode that has possibly set up important future plot devices without actually featuring much about them in the episode itself. The ending stinger was also the weakest in the entire season so far, which is a bummer because all the previous episodes have featured at least something to get excited about in the next episode. It still was a fun watch, and the show will hopefully be at the same level of consistency soon.
Verdict
Oshi no Ko Episode 8 was a bit of a downgrade from the rest of the season, and the direction that the show is going towards is currently unclear. It wasn’t a bad outing, but it felt unimportant.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!